Wednesday, July 1, 2009

CBA website crashes amid hacker scare

Commonwealth Bank's internet banking website has buckled under record levels of unexplained traffic, leaving nearly 4.5 million customers fearing for their account security.

The bank admitted that it was forced to shut down its website in order to investigate the traffic, some of which "appears to be malicious". Customers were locked out of the CBA's NetBank internet site on Monday and Tuesday, with the bank as yet unable to identify the source of the traffic influx.

The scare comes just as the financial year draws to a close, leaving millions of CBA's registered online customers at a loss as they process the end of the tax year.

A spokesman for CBA insisted that customer account details were safe and it was still possible to make transactions. I qoute from NineMsn News.

It has been confirmed by spokesman Steve Batten, "There have been no security breaches and no customer information, money or accounts have been accessed or compromised. We are currently experiencing exceptionally high volumes of traffic, some of which appears to be malicious."

The bank recorded 1.2 million transactions by 3.30pm this afternoon - the number it usually processes in an entire 24-hours. As a precaution to protect its customers, the bank shut down access to its site while it investigates a slew of messages from unidentified senders.

"The CBA will continue to prioritise workload in this manner until we are able to identify beyond any doubt the source and type of this unusual traffic," Mr Batten said. "Customer information and privacy must be secured at all times. If that is ever under threat we must forgo convenience for a short time whilst services are assured," he added.